aimless drainage

A stream or river with an aimless drainage pattern wanders or meanders, it seems, at random across a plain, the ﬂow resembling large, loopy script written on the land. Such meandering waterways—also known as deranged drainages—tend to form in either recently glaciated terrain, where no clear slope funnels water toward the sea, or in the collapsed limestone rubble of karst topography. Good examples of aimless drainages can be found in the glacier-scoured landscapes of Quebec Province.